Psalms 70:3
Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of strength: that thou mayst make me safe. For thou art my firmament and my refuge.
Open Psalms 70:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Esto mihi in Deum protectorem, et in locum munitum, ut salvum me facias : quoniam firmamentum meum et refugium meum es tu.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- γενοῦ μοι εἰς θεὸν ὑπερασπιστήν, εἰς τόπον ὀχυρὸν τοῦ σῶσαί με· ὅτι στερέωμά μου καὶ καταφυγή μου εἶ σύ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 71:3
- הֱיֵ֤ה לִ֨י לְצ֥וּר מָע֡וֹן לָב֗וֹא תָּמִ֗יד צִוִּ֥יתָ לְהוֹשִׁיעֵ֑נִי כִּֽי סַלְעִ֖י וּמְצוּדָתִ֣י אָֽתָּה
Haydock's commentary
Refuge. The parallel passage seems more complete (Calmet) in Hebrew, some letters of which may have been altered, since the time of the Septuagint. Yet the sense is nearly the same. (Berthier)
"Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress." (Protestants) (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXI
5. “Be Thou unto me for a protecting God” ( ver. 3 ). Let not the darts of the enemy reach unto me: for I am not able to protect myself. And a small thing is “protecting:” he hath added, “and for a walled place, that Thou mayest save me.” “For a walled place” be Thou to me, be Thou my walled place.…Behold, God Himself hath become the place of thy fleeing unto, who at first was the fearful object of thy fleeing from. “For a walled place,” he saith, be Thou to me, “that Thou mayest save me.” I shall not be safe except in Thee: except Thou shalt have been my rest, my sickness shall not be able to be made whole. Lift me from the earth; upon Thee I will lie, in order that I may rise unto a walled place. …
St Basil De Spiritu Sancto, That the word “in,” in as many senses as it bears, is understood of the Spirit
62. It is an extraordinary statement, but it is none the less true, that the Spirit is frequently spoken of as the place of them that are being sanctified, and it will become evident that even by this figure the Spirit, so far from being degraded, is rather glorified. For words applicable to the body are, for the sake of clearness, frequently transferred in scripture to spiritual conceptions. Accordingly we find the Psalmist, even in reference to God, saying “Be Thou to me a champion God and a strong place to save me” and concerning the Spirit “behold there is place by me, and stand upon a rock.” Plainly meaning the place or contemplation in the Spirit wherein, after Moses had entered thither, he was able to see God intelligibly manifested to him. …